1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print processing system.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently a network printing system has widely been used at the office. In such a network printing system, terminal apparatuses (PCs) for users and a printing apparatus (multifunction apparatus and the like) are connected to a network, so as to share the printing apparatus among a plurality of users. Particularly for purposes of saving expenses and ensuring the security of printed documents, a print processing system employing a storage printing system is known. In the print processing system, print data generated on a user's PC is temporarily stored on a storage server (print server), and, only when user authentication is successful on a printing apparatus, the printing apparatus obtains the print data designated by a user from the storage server and prints the data (refer to Related Art 1, for example).
This type of print processing system requires a function to manage use of the printing apparatus per user. Further, when it is difficult to perform processing on one storage server due to a large number of users, a management server needs to be installed separately from the storage server, in order to divide and store print data on a plurality of storage servers and to manage the storage status of the print data on the servers.
[Related Art 1] Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2006-99714
In the conventional technology disclosed in above-described Related Art 1, while the print data is transmitted from the user terminal apparatus to the storage server, data containing bibliographic information required for managing the print data is transmitted from the user terminal apparatus to the print management server. Therefore, the user terminal apparatus is required to have a data transmitter that transmits the data to two servers, namely the storage server and the management server. Thus, the technology has a problem where a configuration of the user terminal apparatus is complex. In addition, since the print data and data containing bibliographic information are separately transmitted, data consistency needs to be verified between the two servers, so that no discrepancy occurs between the data stored on the storage server and data managed on the management server. Thus, the technology also has problems, such as complicated processes and the like.
Furthermore, when the bibliographic information associated with the print data is not transmitted to the storage server, the storage server cannot restrict use of a user who has transmitted the print data. The storage server thus stores the print data indefinitely. When a large amount of print data is transmitted with malicious intent or by erroneous operation, the storage server may easily overflow, thus possibly leading to a situation where printing cannot be performed.